But I nearly spat out my mince pie
When I was told
The low hanging Christmas decorations
That threaten to garrote me
Were there because
“They’re the reason for the season.”

What does that mean?

You see everyone around me
Of all faiths and persuasions
From atheists to the zealous
Talk of nothing but…
Christmas shopping,
Christmas presents
Christmas cards and more.
All while scoffing chocolate santas.

Like this:

UPDATE – Applications are now closed, if you are interested in buying or reviewing a copy when the book is available please drop me an email.

Earlier this year I took part in collating and producing a collection of poetry, “Diverse Verse,” which was sold to raise money for charity. I’m now pleased to announce I’m looking for poets again to contribute to a similar project, entitled “Diverse Verse 2.” As usual I’m working with the talented folks at the Walsall Poetry Society.

Here’s how you can get involved and see your poems in print

All you need to do to be involved is to email me two poems to the email address below and they will be considered for the book based on the following rules. Please note entry is free.

All poems must be the authors own work, please don’t submit something that isn’t yours.

Poems are welcome from anyone, anywhere in the world.

Please submit no more than two poems

Submitted poems must be in arial font in a format free word document. If you are unable to do such then just paste the poems into the body of your email.

Poems on any subject and theme are welcome, however sexually explicit poetry and poems with extreme bad language will not be considered.

Poems should be no longer than 400 words approx.

Previously published poems can be submitted as long as the writer holds the copyright.

When submitting poems please include your full name for inclusion in the book’s contents.

If I receive more poems than I can fit in a reasonably sized book then I shall do one of two things. Firstly I shall endeavour to put at least one of each contributors poems in the book, failing that if there are too many poems I will select my favourites and publish those.

The book will be published via Lulu the online publishers.

Closing date for submissions is 31 January 2017

I hope to have the book out in 2017 by the summer at the latest, money raised from sales of the collection will go to charity.